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Posts tagged as “Work”

How to Get Away with Writing a Hollywood Assistants Handbook

How to Get Away with Writing a Hollywood Assistants Handbook

When I first moved to LA, the only things I knew about being an assistant in the industry were through books I had read. It was only natural that one of my first stop in ‘Merica was to another bookshop (Borders) to check out their collection.

I ended up getting a promising guide entitled “The Hollywood Assistants Handbook“.
The book touts “86 Rules for Aspiring Power Players”, all conveyed in a pretty snarky tone.
(And before you ask: yes, it’s still available.)

As I was cleaning my bookshelf last week, I picked up the book to see if the content was still relevant.
Before I had a chance to glance inside, I did a double-take noticing one of the authors– Peter Nowalk.
As in, the creator of ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder.
Clearly, some of the advice he gave worked out for him!

The book was published in 2008, so there’s definitely information that’s a bit outdated (specifically relating to technology or hot-spots).
That said, it still packs some fun and useful advice.
Interestingly, a lot of the perspective on industry bosses is through the lens of “you need to accept you’ll get a jerk boss and do their insane bidding”.

You can listen to Peter Nowalk and co-author Hillary Stamm discuss the book, way back in 2008 on KCRW’s The Business (starts at 10:00).
2008, what a time trip!

It’s always fun/cringe-inducing to look back at your past writing, as Peter Nowalk attested in 2014:

VULTURE: You co-wrote a book called “The Hollywood Assistant’s Handbook: 86 Rules For Aspiring Power Players.” You are a power player yourself.
PETER NOWALK: That is so embarrassing.

The best part of this story however isn’t that Nowalk got a book published– it’s what happened to his professional career afterwards.
Thanks (in part) to putting himself out there, he ended up with a literary manager, and the curiosity of Betsy Beers (Shonda Rhimes’ producing partner). She read his script, passed it on to Rhimes.
Cut to Nowalk beginning his professional TV writing career on ABC’s (and Rhimes’) Private Practice.

Moral of the post? Harness all your experiences (both professional and personal). Know when to use them to advance your career on the business side (in addition to applying them in your writing).

Peter Nowalk did it, and less than a decade later he’s able to justify murder on national television.
Or something to that effect.

Seven Years of My Life 101 (or Life of Alex)

Seven Years of My Life 101 (or Life of Alex)

And now for something completely different. Or exactly what this is all about.

We’ve seen the evolution of TV Calling’s content (and form). Today, I’ll be talking about, well, me. Alex. The man behind the machine. Or the keyboard.

This site is named A TV Calling for one simple reason: television is my calling. I created this website to chronicle my own journey into the TV writing business.
I used to talk daily on this site. After all, it used to be a more traditional blog. Fortunately for readers, it evolved into what it is now. (But what is now?)

You can track seven years of my life through this site. I feel old.
When I started A TV Calling in June 2008, I wasn’t even in Los Angeles. Or the US. Or the Americas. I lived in Paris (not the one in Texas).
As I wrote in the very first post of this site:

If all goes to plan in 5-year time I should be in L.A. for good.

700 days later, I had moved from one side of the world to another. I was living in Los Angeles.

For people who are wondering how I got to live and work in the US–I won my green card. In the lottery.
On October 2, 2008, I registered.
On May 28, 2009, I got the white envelope.
On March 13, 2010, I received my Green Card.
Boom.

I explained the entire, lengthy process in “How I got my green card“.
Before I had it, I looked up all my alternative visa options, then listed them in details in two parts: Visa Breakdown (Part One) & Visa Breakdown (Part Two). There’s also the post about the application process for the lottery.

Yes, it was, and still is, fairly off-subject with the whole TV writing business thing. But I’ve had a couple people request direct links to these.
And we’re talking about my life here!

I get to be a little off-topic at times. A lot of the times.

There’s that time I mentioned I had a Furby.
There’s that time I had issues with one of my hard-drives. And that time I had HDD troubles yet again.
There’s that time I posted a photo of Waldo.
There’s that time I posted a photo of my suitcase.

It’s relevant!

Oh, in June 2009, I chronicled my ten days at the Cannes Film Festival, or as I put it: “How I Survived the 62nd Cannes Film Festival”. There was just so much to say (and show), that I did it in three parts:
– Episode I: The Sleep Deprivation Menace (Thursday, May 14 to Sunday, May 17 2009)
– Episode II: Attack of the Celebrities (Monday, May 18 to Wednesday, May 20 2009)
– Episode III: Revenge of the Films (Thursday, May 21 to Sunday, May 24 2009).

On September 2009, after the Fringe bashing I mentioned yesterday, it was officially reveled that I am an asshole.
It’s always a good laugh to read flaming comments, so here it is for the seven year anniversary:

If you honestly think that your stupid post will steer people away from watching Fringe, YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN! Grow up, asshole!

Touché?

In August 2010, I moved to Los Angeles (meaning I’ll celebrate my five-year move this year).
Incidentally, it was then that I cut back on the personal meanderings.
Maybe I should get back to that at some point.

Several of the Scribosphere Carnival topics were related to my own processes. One was about my TV writing workflow:

Unlike some writers, I actually prefer to write in the comfort of my own home instead of going out to a coffee shop (and spend $5 on a latte).
With that said, I like to create an appropriate “space” for the magic to happen. Even if my desktop is in the bedroom, I will try to physically separate the “writing workspace” from where I sleep by moving stuff over to the living room.

Another (lengthier) one was about criticism: how to give it, how to take it, how to get it. Did that sound dirty?
And the very first Scribosphere Carnival was a time-capsule from 2013 for the year 2014. I was hoping to nab a writer’s assistant position by then. Things didn’t work in my favor. Alas.

So. Seven years later. Where am I? Who am I? What am I?
Existential questions we won’t get the answer to.
But one thing’s for sure: life is hard. And that’s that.

Looking back at seven years’ worth of personal content makes me almost teary-eyed. Or my allergies are acting up again.
I hope to continue aimlessly writing about my journey on this big ball of dirt hurling through space.

Let’s conclude with one of my favorite quotes, and the one thing summarizing everything we’ve seen up to this point: “Never give up, never surrender.”

By Grabthar’s hammer, what a site!

Seven Years of TV Writing (and advice)

Seven Years of TV Writing (and advice)

Television writing is, for all intents and purposes, the core subject of this website.
It would be foolish to recap seven years worth of TV writing-related content and advice in a post.
Let’s do it anyway.

We began our journey by tackling a very simple problem: how to land that first job in television. Yes, that “simple” comment was sarcasm.
It was shortly thereafter that I started mentioning a few of my favorite TV business books, and some great TV writing books.
Note to self: make another updated list. Other note to self: add previous note to self to to-do list.

June 2010 meant kick-off time in South Africa, which led me to write what the World Cup can teach you about TV writing. Hint: it does not involve corruption.

A big event of the past seven years was also my “spec experiment” in 2013 of writing and publicly publishing my spec pilot of Star Trek: Terran.
I explained my thought-process in a much-debated post entitled “Breaking Rules” — Speccing And Sharing Star Trek: Terran.

Television is a collaborative medium. We’re not writing novels, we’re making episodic scripts. And we should be learning from each other.
Sadly, besides produced scripts being traded in the shadows of Internet, there’s almost no TV writer, aspiring or pro, willing to openly share their work.
And I have to say: it’s weird.
I’m not talking about sharing projects currently in development/production or making the rounds. What I’m referring to is all the other stuff. The failed pitches, the finished projects, the canceled ventures.
This isn’t a question of getting/wanting validation from the outside. It’s obvious most writers already have a group, or an entourage whose opinion they care about. It’s about sharing the craft. The experience of TV writing.
That’s one of the reasons why I put Terran out there. Like any spec, it’s an ongoing work in progress, and I do welcome any feedback I get. Yet, I don’t expect it to be made (copyright issues notwithstanding). I put it out, in part, to share the process (good and bad).

I concluded with the following sentiments:

Writing can be a personal affair, but TV is communal. It’s teamwork. We’re all in this together.
I wish writers were more willing to openly share their work, especially when it comes to television.
It’s high time we started learning from each other’s craft. Why not become a team writer yourself?

Sounds like people need another bump to the bum!

Moving on to one of our most popular TV writing series–
“Screenwriting Lessons From” is a great little series of articles where I reverse-engineer screenwriting lessons from finished series. We’ve tackled Coupling, Friends, Parks & Recreation, Farscape and Six Feet Under.
Last December, this tweet happened:


Yes, that’s a tweet from motherfrelling Farscape creator Rockne S. O’Bannon praising my “Screenwriting Lessons from Farscape” post! I’m still in shock that happened.

And speaking of professional TV people and popular series (greatest transition ever?), we’ve had since last year our “Profiles of Television” interview series, which mixes both TV writing and TV business advice. Posted as of today:
– Kiyong Kim – TV Writing Fellow (Nickelodeon/NBC WOTV/CAAM)
– Meghan Pleticha – TV Writer’s Assistant & Script Coordinator (Silicon Valley/Married)
– Jill Weinberger – TV Writer/Story Editor (Chicago Fire)
– Matt Thilenius – TV Literary Assistant (CAA)
(and someone else we had to remove for secret reasons)
Fun fact: this is just the beginning! I’ve already got four upcoming interviews in the can, ready to fire off. All that’s left to do is the transcript for each. Shouldn’t take more than hours and hours of work.

Of course, our big takeaway for most people have always been my annual spec script lists. I’ve published, so far, 13 spec lists since our creation (or, more accurately, since 2009).
It’s fair to say that over the past few years, our focus has slowly shifted to the TV writing fellowships and specs.
The first venture into the “how-to” spec guide was with the super-duper Canadian police procedural Flashpoint and our “Spec Flashpoint” series. I broke down over seven articles how I specced that show. Everything from research to, well, development.
Let’s not forget also the various how-to articles on spec scripts, mainly how fresh a show should be to spec it, and ten spec writing rules (and why you should care).
Over the past seven years we’ve had a ton of other articles on TV writing, including:
– The difference between a “spec script” and “spec pilot”
– How to land a writing gig on a TV show
– Script Registration 101
– How to get a TV agent
– How late you can spec something
– Animated vs. live-action specs
– Is a pilot script needed when pitching?

And many more.

It has been a very fruitful journey so far, and I hope you continue living it with us.

Write on.